A Decade Review of the Art of Inspection and Monitoring Technologies for Long-Distance Oil and Gas Pipelines in Permafrost Areas

Abstract

Long-distance oil and gas pipelines buried in permafrost areas will inevitably encounter typical geological disasters, such as frost heave and thaw settlement and sliding, which easily cause pipeline displacement, bending, or deformation. When there are certain defects in the pipeline, additional complex, external stress will further lead to the failure of the pipeline or weld and can even lead to serious accidents such as pipeline leakage, pipe burst, or fracture. This paper introduces in detail the typical defects and risks of buried pipelines in permafrost areas and summarizes the in-line inspection technologies, off-line inspection technologies, and integrated monitoring systems for pipelines in the pipeline industry. Regarding pipelines in permafrost areas, in-line inspection methods may be employed. These include magnetic flux leakage, electromagnetic eddy current, ultrasonic, IMU, and electromagnetic acoustic transducer inspections. Off-line inspection is also one of the important means of inspecting a pipeline in a permafrost area. Indirect inspection is combined with verification by direct inspection to check and evaluate the integrity of the anticorrosive coating and the effectiveness of the cathodic protection for the pipeline. Meanwhile, considering the external environment of a pipeline in a permafrost area, a monitoring system should be developed and established. This paper discusses and projects the future development of related technologies, which provides reference for the construction and operation of pipelines in permafrost areas.

Study on the Strengthening Effect of Excitation Magnetic Field on Stress-Induced Magnetic Signal of X80 Steels

“…At present, the traditional methods for pipeline axial stress inspection include the small hole method [5], the X-ray diffraction method [6], and the ultrasonic stress detection method [7]. However, the small hole method can cause damage to pipelines and is not suitable for stress detection of in-service pipelines.…”

Gaussian process regression based inspection robot for predicting and locating pipeline anticorrosion coating defects

“…However, the conventional DCVG inspection process demands skilled operators to perform manual scans, which is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and potentially error-prone, especially for extensive pipeline networks spanning thousands of kilometers [12]. In recent years, scholars from various countries have been dedicated to researching autonomous search inspection robots [13][14][15], which find applications not only in autonomous detection of pipeline defects but also in addressing autonomous search requirements in other domains [16].…”

Preliminary Insight into Ice Melting, Surface Subsidence, and Wellhead Instability during Oil and Gas Extraction in Permafrost Region

“…It is estimated that the Arctic Circle has about 30% of the world's proven natural gas reserves and about 13% of the world's proven oil reserves [3,4]. However, the permafrost in this area is a temperature-sensitive formation [5,6]. During oil and gas development, the high-temperature reservoir fluid within the wellbore can lead to the melting of permafrost and a reduction in its strength [7,8].…”